Once Upon A Memory

Chapter Nine : Surprise Surprise

The nerves set in as the teacher said, "be here by five thirty, because our concert starts at six!" We are having a Christmas concert in the school cafeteria for our school band sponsors, family, friends, and general public. I was beyond nervous when it came to doing just about anything that involved any type of audience. I was never a public person I guess you could say, but I had to overcome that fear for my dreams if becoming an English teacher and someday a movie director. "Put your instruments away," she said to us. Our band director gave us about five minutes each day after rehearsal to put them away, but it was extremely hard to put them away if she waited until the bell, because we only have about three minutes between each class. It doesn't help that our school has three different floors.

The whole entire school day passed by in a blur, because I was so distracted on trying to not be nervous for the concert.

"Erica!" A familiar male voice called. I couldn't seem to place a face to the voice without turning around. I turned around with a confused look on my face. This newer kid Edje was the one who called. He was extremely sweet and his hugs were always so warm and inviting. He also knew how to make me smile even when I was in the worst of moods. Edje was slowly becoming one of my friends. We never really talked to each other about deep down personal stuff, we just asked each other how our days were going, about music, and other stuff that we like to do.

Whenever I was around him I alway turned bright red, and I don't know why. Maybe it was a crush, because he was so handsome? But I knew that it wasn't what I felt for Alex. Was my heart trying to move on? Or was it trying to distract me?

As I spent my day thinking about Alex and Edji the day passed in what seemed like fast forward mode, because the next thing that I knew I was in my bathroom at home getting ready to go to the concert. As I was doing the final touch ups to my hair my phone lit up telling me that I had a new friend request on Facebook. That request just happened to be from the one and only Edji. It made me smile as big as I could. Why am I so happy about a friend request from one boy?

"Hey," he wrote in a message to me. My heart started racing faster to the point that I thought that my heart was going to jump right out of my chest.

"Hi," I wrote back.

"What's up band buddy?"

"Not much just getting ready for the band concert. What about you?" I asked.

"Nothing, I'm not going to the concert," he replied.

"Oh, I see."

"Yeah, so Kaitlin told me something today,"

"What would that be?" I asked.

"Oh, just that a girl dummer has a crush on me, and well you see it wasn't that hard to figure out, because there is only one girl drummer..." How did Kaitlin find out that I liked Ed? She was always good at finding things out, but I didn't tell a single person that I thought that he was cute.

"Actually, I do think that you're cute," I replied.

"Well I really like you too! Can we hang out sometime soon?" he asked. My heart picked up a rapid tempo.

"Of course we can" I excitedly replied.

"Ok. Well I'll let you go now for the concert. Text me later," he said and gave me his cell phone number before logging off. WIth that I began my journey to the school with a huge smile on my face. No one has liked me in such a long time, or at least told me, that I didn't want it to go away.

Alex was already there waiting for me. "ERICA!" he yelled when he saw me walking up to the front door. He ran to me, and hugged me like he had not seen me in years. He picked me up and spun me in a circle, us both laughing the entire time. When he put me down he did not let me go. For once I felt so right and safe.

"Alex, I'm really nervous about the concert..."I said. I really was not lying; I am extremely nervous. I always become nervous before doing just about anything in front of an audience. I just do not want to mess up in front of so many people, granted everyone makes mistakes I didn't want to be blamed for our school band sounding bad.

"Well BooBooBear you have nothing to be worried about. You'll be amazing like always," Alex said trying to make me feel a lot better even though in the long run it probably would not help. As everyone for the band started showing up I felt a little bit better, because of all of the support that they give to everyone. Band is like a family, no matter how mad you are at someone you still have a lot of support from multiple band members.

"Thanks hun, you'll be amazing too!" I replied.

"No, I won't, I don't even play, because I don't even know the music. I'm not amazing like you who learned how to read music like it's nothing," he replied.

"Well that doesn't mean that you're not amazing. You're amazing in your own ways," I said, and kissed his cheek before walking away.

"Everyone get ready! We are on stage next!" the teacher yelled to everyone; when she said that my stomach did a backflip.

"Erica!" A girl named Brooke called. I looked up at her. "Merry Christmas from your Secret Santa," she said and handed me a gift. I said thank you and gave her a hug before opening it. The gift was a Batman winter hat. I smiled, and gave her another hug.

"Thank you so much! I love Batman!" I giggled. I had given my gift to the person whom I had chosen from the hat as soon as I had gotten to the school.

"A little bird gave me a hint," she winked, and walked away. I was confused on who would tell her that I liked Batman, because it was not that obvious. I jumped when I felt a pair of arms snake around my waist. "I knew you'd like it," he joked. I smiled.

"Well thank you very much little bird Alex," I laughed, and he chuckled. He was right in front of me now looking down into my eyes, still holding onto my waist. I felt my heart quicken and it started to become harder to breath.

"Come on it's almost our turn," he said and walked away towards the back of the stage. I sighed and followed him. For a moment there I really thought that he was going to kiss me. As everyone was standing by the doors trying to calm their nerves I was thinking about what would have happened if he had kissed me.

"Alright everyone good luck, and just try your best. Remember what we practiced!" the teacher said to us just before we walked onto the stage to perform. I was nervous none the least, but so was everyone else.

During the entire concert I do not think that I messed up even once. I felt so proud of myself. Afterwards Alex hugged me and told me how great I did, his best friend, the one with the babies, told me that I did really well too. After I had gotten my things from the band room I ran to go find my mother. She was helping some of the other band parent's sell our baked goods to raise money for our competition trip to New York in May.

"Mom, did you see me play?" I asked.

"No Erica, I didn't," she said. She didn't really seem care what I did for school activities, but she was always so strict. I sighed, and stood off to the side until she was ready to leave.